I do not own Mass Effect 3. Normally I'd make a pithy comment about the ending but nope. Also, this was an idea that's been bouncing in my head since I started the multiplayer. Maybe I'll expound upon it. Maybe not. Depends on how you guys like it. Read, Review, and Rondelle.
I dove for cover as a hail of bullets slammed into the bulkhead where he had just been. The Eclipse squad I was a part of had been diverted to provide cover for evacuating civilians, but was now being overrun.
Fucking Aria, I thought. We could be in Purgatory right now, getting drunk and banging women. An explosion from the other side of my cover jarred him out of his reverie. As I sighed heavily, I opened my comm link.
"Squad 3, this is Uthar. Report in." A crackle of silence greeted me, downing my already ow hopes. "Squad 3, I swear to whatever you believe in, if you're all dead I'll piss on your corpses." I'm not even squad leader, this shouldn't be my job. However, I had taken on the responsibility shortly after they'd landed when one of those Cerberus whores leapt out of a window and gutted him with a sword. Who the hell used a sword anymore? A burst of static blurted out of his comm, and the voice gave me the tiniest bit of hope.
"Uthar, this is Danielson. I've got Raiel with me, where'd you go? We could use your drone over here." I rolled my eyes. It just had to be those two. At least I'll have a big gun and biotics on my side…Danielson repeated the question and sounded slightly more urgent this time.
"Danielson, Raiel, I'm near what looks like the 400 block of this shitty apartment block. My drone's distracted with not getting me killed. Feel like throwing the asari over here to let her kill a few people with her mind? Or just to look hot, I'm fine either way. But fire support would make me a much happier person…" I heard Raiel snort over the comm with a muttered "Yeah, that's not happening." Danielson shushed her.
"See if you can get to us. We're in the 200 block, in the clearing. We've got a shuttle 10 minutes out , and Ledra's turret is still up from before he went down, so you should have cover. Get here." The comm went dead again and I hung my head. I'm a goddamned engineer. They hired me to set things on fire and fix their shit. Glancing at my pistol, I smiled. At least my Carnifex still works. Here goes nothing. Reactivating my drone and sending it around the entrenched Cerberus troops, I broke cover and took off for the nearest house, bounding through the doors as Cerberus was distracted. Seeing a civilian raise a gun, I ripped off my helmet. "Eclipse! I'm Eclipse! We're giving you cover but you gotta move with me now. Shuttle's 10 minutes out at the 200 block and I am not missing it because some civvie shot me. So I get you out, you don't shoot me, and we all get drunk. That a plan?" The woman nodded. "Good. I'll move first, because I'm gentlemanly and shit. Seal those doors behind you. We're moving now."
The next 5 minutes were a blur of running, shouting, cursing, and shooting. I grinned. That girl can hold her own, I'll give her that. She's fighting harder scared than I've seen krogan fight angry. I think I'm in love. As they sprinted into the clearing of the 200 block, a shout of happiness greeted them. "You glorious idiot! I knew you'd make it alive, or at least not entirely dead." Glancing at the civilian, Danielson's face softened. "Was she the only one who made it?" I nodded. "Shit. We're not cut out for this, man. Ledra and Vychun are dead and all the civvies we had got killed by one of those turrets. They ran out there like lemmings before we could stop them. Where the hell are the evac shuttles?" The girl stepped forward, eyes welling up.
"They all got shot down. Even the ones filled with people. Yours is the only one coming. It's our only hope." I grabbed her as she slid to the ground and moved her to cover.
"Raiel, I need your help. You asari are good with people, right? Keep her calm until the shuttle gets here. Danielson and I can keep you covered." To her credit, she didn't give me any shit like she usually does and just sat in front of the woman, whispering encouraging words. I slid over to Danielson. "Hey, buddy. How goes life?"
He stared at me. "Oh, it's just great, pumpkin. Today I got up, and I had some milk, and then I almost got killed several times by Cerberus, and then your ass showed up. So it was great until that last part." He visibly sagged as he sighed. "We've lost 3 people giving these people cover. Not a single mech lasted more than 15 minutes, and the shuttle's still 2 minutes out." I perked up.
"2 minutes? How is that bad? We can be out of here and drunk just like that!" Danielson nodded.
"But we failed. And before he died, Ledra tapped into their comms. They just dropped 3 of the huge mech suits they have into the area. Heading straight here, and they're closing fast. We have to hold them off while Raiel and the civilian get safe." My face blanched. "What? You thought you'd make it out of this? You're not Shepard. You're some engineer with a pistol. You can't even use this right." He hefted his Revenant to make a point. "But what you are Eclipse. You die with pride, or at least screaming horrible things about your target's mother." I smiled, remembering the pep talk we'd been given when we joined, then thrown into the training. His face jerked upward, listening. "Get ready. They're coming." I readied my drone and set it to a choke point, then queued up a special Overload I'd created. Combining electricity to drop shields with a potent toxin to shut down the person, I could drop anyone who didn't have incredibly thick armor. And if they did, that's where the Incinerate I got from Gotak gave me came from. He may have been a dick, but for a batarian and squad leader, he was alright. And he was saving my life from beyond the grave with this thing. A single trooper ran around the corner of the clearing, and Ledra's turret proved useful already, filling him with more bullets than Ledra himself. Heh. Ledra would have liked that one. One of the ninja whores launched herself over the turret and drew her sword in the same motion, eliciting a cry of "Horeshit!" from Danielson as he filled the air in front of him with bullets. I whipped around and, pointing my omni-tool, sparked her barriers for a second before flooding her body with a potent toxin. Her twitching as she felt it course through her body gave me a borderline sociopathic glee.
"Alright Clair, target's fleshy!" I heard several unkind words about my mother and some farm animals as I used Danielson's first name, but as he currently needed me to cover him, I was safe. And when you considered we had at least a fourth of Cerberus' ground troops trying to kill us, I figured he had more to worry about. As I ducked back into cover to let my shield recharge, I checked my ammo. Shit. 2 clips left and no ammo packs…I sprinted over to Danielson, who was shouting all sorts of challenges to the troops at the bottleneck. "Hey! I need an ammo pack, I'm low."
Choosing not to respond, he instead shrugged his pack off his back and let spare clips spill from it. "You see that? Even this puny little nerd is holding you off! And we're not even wearing helmets, you pussies! You know who's stopping you? Not N7! Not Spec Ops! Not Shepard! Eclipse! We are Eclipse, and we fucked your moth-" The end of his insult was cut off as a laser sight beamed onto his forehead, and in the same second, fired. I heard Raiel give a cry of horror as she looked up to see why the massive soldier had stopped what was a battlefield norm for him and saw him topple onto the upturned ATM he'd been using as cover, obviously dead. Dragging his bulk down behind it, I looked at the ETA of the shuttle. Less than 30 seconds. I could do this.
"Raiel, stay down and get a barrier over you two! I'm borrowing his gun for a bit." Hefting the weapon that was possibly illegal in most Citadel space, I steadied it on the blood-covered impromptu cover. The feeling of opening fire with that was one of complete joy.
Until the Atlas mech showed up. My joy turned to fear. "Raiel, I need an ETA!" Her soothing voice tinged with panic and relief came over the explosions.
"It's here! Drop the gun and let's go!" I complied and launched my drone one last time, as well as firing off Incinerates as fast as the super-heated plasma could recharge. As I turned and ran, I saw my friend and the civilian in the shuttle, with a door gunner providing cover in the only way they know how, bullet spam. I leapt the last feet into the open shuttle doors and into safety as the slammed shut behind me and, feeling the transport shudder and it rocketed off of the godawful planet we'd been on, allowed myself a sigh of relief. As I laid on the floor, I realized we weren't in an Eclipse shuttle, or even Blue Suns. This had Alliance markings. Motioning for Raiel, she knelt next to me.
"Where's our shuttle? Where's our people? Where are the other teams?" The biotic shook her head.
"None of them made it. Those who didn't die were captured. We're the only ones who got out." I stared blankly. We'd sent 50 people down there, 10 five man squads. Two of us made it out. A 98% fatality rate.
"How many civilians got out? Did any get out? Don't lie to me, I couldn't take it." She looked down, then back at me, with a sad smile.
"A lot got out, but the rest were taken before we landed. We did the best we could." I fell back down onto the floor, armor clunking heavily.
"She's right." Both of us glanced at the Alliance marine standing in the doorway. "You did the best, considering Eclipse's specialties consisted of tech and throwing mechs at a problem. I want to talk to the both of you when we land. About joining the Special Operations teams we have."
Let me know what you think? Thanks.